Jannik Sinner regrettably missed the 2024 Paris Olympics, but he found criticism about his withdrawal to be excessive, as nobody really knows how he felt.
Sinner missed the Olympic Games in Paris due to a battle with tonsillitis, which certainly doesn't sound as harrowing as a torn ligament in the knee, but it's far from a minor condition.
Some cases of tonsillitis can be mild, but some cases can be very severe and require hospitalization. Fever is common, and sometimes, there is swelling, which makes breathing tricky, among many other symptoms.
Andrey Rublev famously had a bout with tonsillitis earlier this year at the Madrid Open, which left him quite traumatized with multiple hospital trips.
Sinner is no fan of people questioning his loyalty to Italy by suggesting he could have played at the event. After all, he proved his loyalty by leading them to the Davis Cup trophy last year.
Being from South Tyrol is certainly an underrated part of that narrative, but ultimately, the Italian knows he couldn't play. His team knew that, and chatter suggesting otherwise doesn't really interest him.
Suggesting that Sinner didn't play simply because he felt a little bit unwell goes against everything we know of Sinner. He didn't skip some not-important tournament in the middle of nowhere.
He skipped over the Olympic Games in the French capital, which no one does unless they have to. He couldn't get out of bed, and there was no way that he could have played, as he revealed when asked about it at the 2024 Canadian Open.
"It’s a question I don’t even want to have to answer honestly. I think only my team and I really know how I felt. From the outside it’s one thing, from the inside it’s another. I especially know how I felt."
"I had said since the beginning of the year that my biggest goal was the Olympics, but unfortunately I wasn’t even able to get out of bed. Then honestly, what people think… let’s say I give it little importance, little weight."
In the end, the chatter is basically an attack on Sinner's character. He did read some things, even though he's not on social media anymore. None of that will leave a mark on Sinner, as he knows what kind of person he is. He's already putting it behind him, opting to focus on the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Montreal.
"I’m not on social media anymore, which is something that does me a lot of good. Then I read some things anyway, it’s obvious that when you open your phone there are notifications and I see something."
"But I also know who I am as a person and what kind of people I have around me — who all care a lot about me. Unfortunately this time it went like this, there will always be some good things and some a little bit worse, like this. I understand people’s reaction, I’m honest, but now I’m here in Montreal and what happened happened."
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